CIRCUS DRAWS THE SAME SWEATING, HAPPY CROWDS. ~ That It Always Does in Its Far Between Visits -- Its Wonders Remain Ever Fresh.

July 21, 1908

CIRCUS DRAWS THE SAME

SWEATING, HAPPY CROWDS.

That It Always Does in Its Far Be-

tween Visits -- Its Wonders

Remain Ever Fresh.

Little small boys and big small boys, little girls and big girls; whole families were happy yesterday, happy with that kind of happiness that comes only once or twice a year. The little ones were happy openly, the big ones in a proper, staid sort of way, but all were happy for the same reason. It was circus day. It doesn't make the little bit of difference whether one is in the old country town or in the city, circus day is circus day the whole world over. On that day nobody cares anything about anything but the circus. What's the use in denying it? Everybody knows how everybody else feels.

"The great and only Barnum and Bailey Circus" pitched the tents of its little city out on Indiana avenue, just south of Fifteenth street. They say they were the biggest tents in the world and nobody who was there yesterday denied it.

Of course the "cutest" thing in the whole show was the baby elephant. They had him in a cage where not even a peanut could be slyly smuggled to his everready, ridiculously small trunk. Then there was a baby camel and other baby animals and giraffes, sleepy, aristocratic looking animals, and zebras and just about every kind of animal that has ever been exhibited in a menagerie.

In the "big tent" all the old acts were in evidence and many more. The aerial and equestrian acts were exceptionally high class, the clowns were just as funny as ever, the hippodrome races were wildly exciting, the automobile somersault act, which brought the performance to a close, was beyond a doubt the most daring, most hair-raising feature ever presented in a circus tent in Kansas City. Two big automobiles are drawn high up onto a steep track. In each is a young woman. At a given signal both machines are released and, with a roar and a rush, start on their downward course. The first one leaves the track and, rising high in the air, turns a complete somersault, alighting on a platform some distance away. While it is in the air the other machine jumps across the gap in is well away. Only by the most careful timing and adjustment, it is possible for the one to clear the track before the other comes crashing down. A collision would mean a tragedy that would be frightful to contemplate. but the two young women who ride in the auto don't seem to mind in the least.

The Barnum & Bailey circus has come and gone At two performances it packed its great tents to their capacity and nobody has yet been heard to register a "knock." It's a great big, smashing good show, and it's probable that if it were to be here again today just as many thousands would go as went yesterday, and probably a lot of them would be the same ones who went yesterday, too.